Bersih 2.0 Chairperson Ambiga Denied Entry Into Sarawak

Coming in this morning from KL, Bersih 2.0 Chairperson and Malaysia Bar Council Past President (2007-2009) Dato’ Ambiga Sreenevasan was denied entry into Sarawak at Kuching airport. On April 13, 2011, Bersih 2.0 issued a press statement in which she critically expressed concerns regarding issues that jeopardise free and fair elections in Sarawak, amongst one of the issues was barring of activists from entering Sarawak. Now she herself has become the 4th victim following Steven Ng (denied entry April 03), Wong Chin Huat (denied entry April 08) and Harris Ibrahim (denied entry April 13).

That these important people are kept out from entering Sarawak casts doubt on the fairness of the whole elections process. What sort of country keeps its own people out and from speaking to people at elections and exactly how much influence does the entrenched leadership of the state have to take whatever actions it wants to remain in power.

Learned people who understand law are trying to break the grip on power by a strong arm organization that has led to the deforestation and ramming through of huge land conversion projects like the series of dams going in that do little but harm for the people of Sarawak. Not so its elite and favored few.. What about the people who are citizens but who can’t vote who are on the peninsula or elsewhere overseas? Would they be turned away by paperwork even if they tried to return home at great expense, possibly even losing their jobs at the the airport arrival gate in Sarawak?